Thursday, November 4, 2010

Back in July, when we respectfully asked China to allow us to adopt Yun Xi, we were given a deadline of 90 days to have all of our papers signed, sealed, delivered and logged-in in China. Several agencies said there was no way it could be done. Our agency however is made of sterner stuff. "Let's do this warp speed," they said.

In 90 days we had to (just a sampling):

*Get notarized documents from California, Oklahoma, and Utah.
*Have physicals.
*Get police clearances from all of the places we've lived since age 18.
*Have a social worker make visits to our house.
*Get friends and family to write letters of recommendation.
*Do on-line training.
*Get fingerprinted.
*Make countless trips to the notary.....she'll be getting a Christmas card.
*Visit the Secretary of State's Office in Olympia.
*Send documents to consulates and embassies in San Francisco, Houston, and DC.
*Wait for all of the government agencies to stamp, sign, or do whatever they needed to do to the above documents.
*Etc., Etc., Etc....

Our deadline was October 23rd. I knew when we sent our papers to China that we'd be close. Depending on how long it took on the China side to log-in our papers, we may or may not make the deadline. Well, just this morning I found out our log-in date. It was October 22nd! We made the deadline by ONE day! It makes all of those overnight fees and courier charges worthwhile.

So on this momentous day, I'll share another Yun Xi picture. This is a rare photo of him not in full-out grin, but the grin is obviously right under the surface.

We're still hoping to travel in March. I planted some daffodil bulbs last week and thought of how happy and bright they would look in the spring, welcoming our little Yun Xi home.

Phew! Well, now if anyone asks, you can say that you waited right up until your "due date" for Yun Xi. :-)

And, fyi, if we had a boy, he was going to be named Simon Joseph. We love the story in the New Testament of how a man named Simon carried the cross for Christ. (But thankfully, we had a GIRL, which means no more Cub Scouts or Eagle projects for me! WooHoo!)

You're making life difficult for me! We've been strongly considering the name Simon again. Ugghhh! Seriously, it's down to Levi or Simon. Two of the kids are campaigning for Levi and two for Simon. Lyle is wisely staying out of it. He just offers the oh-so-helpful "I would be happy with either one."

Aw, Eileen, Yun Xi's sweet spirit just bubbles up in the photographs you have! I don't think you can go wrong with any of the names you are considering. By any name, he will be just as sweet! I am so happy for you! It's amazing what can be accomplished when God and Love (that's redundant!) are driving the typically slow boat to China!

Why Scravings?

The family vernacular for tidbits of food left on a plate after a meal, as in, "I'll give my scravings to Charlie," or "I CAN have dessert. This is just scravings." It seemed an appropriate word for the little morsels thrown out on our blog. Sometimes tasty, sometimes destined for the dog dish.